'Precious Doe' Timeline

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A timeline of events from 2001 to present in the Precious Doe (search) case:

— April 28, 2001: The headless body of a little girl is found in a wooded area in southeast Kansas City. Three days later, a volunteer searcher finds the girl's head in a trash bag nearby in the woods.

— May 31, 2001: One of the first of several apparent breaks in the case comes to naught when DNA shows the girl found in Kansas City — dubbed "Precious Doe" by community activists — is not Teekah Lewis, a missing 2-year-old from Tacoma, Wash.

— Aug. 31, 2001: After a computer-generated sketch fails to lead to an identification — despite more than 600 tips and the case having been featured three times on the Fox series "America's Most Wanted" — police unveil a bust created from the girl's skull by forensic artist Frank Bender of Philadelphia.

— Dec. 8, 2001: After a 90-minute memorial service, the still-unidentified girl is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery, not far from where her body was found.

— May 1, 2002: Police say the palm prints of a missing Miami girl, Rilya Wilson, do not match those of the body found in Kansas City. DNA testing later confirms that Rilya, who went missing from the Florida foster care system in January 2001, is not Precious Doe.

— July 15, 2003: Precious Doe's body is exhumed, and her skull taken to Louisiana by forensic anthropologist Mary Manhein of Louisiana State University, who plans to sculpt what investigators hope will be a more accurate likeness of the little girl.

— Aug. 28, 2004: A memorial park is dedicated, near where Precious Doe's body was found. The park, featuring a pair of white concrete benches and two newly planted trees, replaces an impromptu memorial at the site. It was taken down in July, after neighbors said it had become run down and an eyesore.

— April 29, 2005: Police and activists receive a tip from an Oklahoma man who says he is a relative of the slain girl and knows her identity — and who killed her.

— May 5, 2005: Police say Precious Doe was Erica Michelle Maria Green, who was almost 4 when she died.